Free backpacks, haircuts aim to start school year off on right foot

Three-year-old Gregory Figures was wowed by the supplies that his older sister A'Laisha Figures, 4, received during the fourth annual Back 2 School Hair Cut charity event Sunday, Aug. 20, 2017, in Houston. The event is sponsored Houston Independent School District Board of Education President Trustee Wanda Adams of District IX, along with Kut N Zone, Barber Shop and Diamonds and Pearls Mothers. Children were treated to a free haircuts, school uniforms, backpacks, food, fun and other giveaways. less

Three-year-old Gregory Figures was wowed by the supplies that his older sister A'Laisha Figures, 4, received during the fourth annual Back 2 School Hair Cut charity event Sunday, Aug. 20, 2017, in Houston. The ... more

Photo: Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle

Photo: Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle

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Three-year-old Gregory Figures was wowed by the supplies that his older sister A'Laisha Figures, 4, received during the fourth annual Back 2 School Hair Cut charity event Sunday, Aug. 20, 2017, in Houston. The event is sponsored Houston Independent School District Board of Education President Trustee Wanda Adams of District IX, along with Kut N Zone, Barber Shop and Diamonds and Pearls Mothers. Children were treated to a free haircuts, school uniforms, backpacks, food, fun and other giveaways. less

Three-year-old Gregory Figures was wowed by the supplies that his older sister A'Laisha Figures, 4, received during the fourth annual Back 2 School Hair Cut charity event Sunday, Aug. 20, 2017, in Houston. The ... more

Photo: Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle

Free backpacks, haircuts aim to start school year off on right foot

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The five boys in the five barber shop chairs, all spun to face the door and the bustling back-to-school event outside, wore the same Kut N Zone branded smocks - and the same distant expression.

Barber shops are where men gather to talk about grown-up stuff, each face seemed to say, so I guess I'm a man, too. Even if I'm just 6.

Free haircuts and backpacks were the chief draws for parents of Houston ISD board president Wanda Adams' 4th annual event, which also gave eligible families a way to sign up for free or reduced-price school lunches and to ensure their children were up-to-date on vaccinations. Some families also received vouchers to help pay for school uniforms.

One of the older kids waiting for a trim was Bellaire High School senior Julio Arzate. The 17-year-old soccer star will have a busy fall, as he hopes to find a college that will let him continue his athletic career and also train as a physical therapist.

"I'm excited. That's what everyone talks about - being excited about being a senior," he said, then shrugged. "But then you have another four years of college, so I don't know what you're really excited about."

For younger kids, attractions included a climbing wall, a bouncy castle, a clown twisting balloon animals, and the Chubby's Snow Cones truck, which quickly drew a line when it pulled in at 4 p.m.

Tamara Busby's mother found the event online, so she drove in from Aldine with son Azarel, 6, and the rest of her family for the afternoon.

"We're very humble and blessed to have the experience for the community," Busby said. "We come back most of the time just to have fun because most of the time throughout the summer we can't afford to take off work to do activities, to take them on vacations or anything. So this type of stuff, they go home and they're like, 'That was fun!' "

Performance concerns

The family will still need to go to Goodwill to get school uniforms but were grateful to get the backpacks and accompany supplies, such as notebooks, folders and, as Azarel noted, a bottle of "hanitizer," his efficient way of saying "hand sanitizer."

A frenetic Adams pronounced the event an exciting success, noting that about 100 haircuts and a few more backpacks had been given away as of 4 p.m. with three hours left in the gathering, which was held in the strip center parking lot in front of the barber shop, less than a mile west of NRG Stadium.

That Adams' board risks being taken over by state officials concerned about the HISD's count of chronically struggling campuses didn't seem to hamper morale.

State school ratings released last week showed academic gains across the nation's seventh-largest district but also showed 10 struggling campuses among HISD's 280 schools again fell short of the mark.

That leaves the district under threat of state intervention and even takeover next year if progress proves elusive at Blackshear, Dogan, Highland Heights, Mading and Wesley elementary schools, Henry Middle School, Woodson PK-8 School and Kashmere, Worthing and Wheatley high schools.

Kim Carter's daughter Kyra, 10, is entering fifth grade at Mading. Carter said it was a relief to start the year having received school supplies and a school uniform because they couldn't afford both.

'Work together'

She said the risk of state intervention has not shifted the discussion among parents in the South Park neighborhood much, as they haven't stopped asking how they can help turn their schools around.

"We try and discuss it with them and find out what the problem is, what can we do as parents, to work together," she said of her discussions with teachers. "They need more programs in the school. I'd say one Saturday out of the month, we (should) come up to school and have teachers let us know what's going on, teach us what we need to teach them at home, because it's been years since we've been out of school."

HISD is among several dozen Texas districts that could face such sweeping changes thanks to a 2015 state law that targets schools that have been in "improvement required" status for five or more years, as of the 2018-2019 school year.

Not every parent at Adams' event was burdened by such concerns.

KaKesha Johnson brought her son Jaxson, who is entering second grade at Shearn Elementary, in part so that the 7-year-old could burn off some energy.

The strategy succeeded, as Jaxson attacked the climbing wall and then joined a handful of other kids in a dance party.

"Oh my god, I didn't know he could do that," Johnson said, putting her hand to her chest when Jaxson did a partial handstand and then sprung back to his feet.

His moves earned him a fidget spinner and a voucher for a school uniform, as did all his peers in the dance-off.

"I wanted to come out so he could be social, get to interface with people," Johnson said. "He never sleeps."